The Best Birthday Present
by mysteryteenagelover
Summary: Rory and Dean are in love...and in a dark room alone together...


**Dedicated to a certain Rory-Jess fan who I'm trying to convert.**

Rory Gilmore was a lot of things.

She was sweet. She was kind. She shared a special bond with Lorelai that only made sense to on their home planet, and it was a waste of time for anyone on earth to try and understand it. She was smart. She carried a book absolutely every single place she went, including to the school dance. Dean smiled as he remembered that fateful night that Rory had opened the door and her grandmother was glaring at him, but she faded into unimportance next to the beautiful vision that Rory was in that blue, shoulder-baring dress that her mother had made for her. Dangling from her hand was the matching bag, and in it was a book. He loved that about her. The total concentration that came over her beautiful face when she opened a novel and tuned out the world. That sense of being in another universe, a thousand miles away from the seat and the bus stop and Stars Hollow.

She was polite. Too polite to tell Taylor where he could go when he roamed the town shouting about another one of his pointless and random ideas. Too polite to tell that Jess to leave her alone when she wanted to be alone. Rory Gilmore was a lot of things, but one of the things that Dean had never thought he would find her was sexy. Not that he minded, she was cute and sweet and adorable. But Rory Gilmore: sexy as hell?

But he'd clearly been wrong.

It was Rory's seventeenth birthday party and her mother had opened the door for him at precisely seven o'clock. Rory was wearing another one of Lorelai's stunning creations. Black, backless except for the skinny straps that criss-crossed her back twice before holding up the dress just on her hips. Dean had to stop himself from reaching out and touching her skin when he spotted her across the huge entrance hall of her grandmother's house. Despite the fact that they were in the presence of most of Stars Hollow, not to mention two or three dozen of Rory's grandfather's friends. 'From the club, you see', as he explained to Rory later.

Dean felt super-sensitised. Every time Rory turned her head, the cascading of her hair over her gorgeous shoulders sent shivers down his back. As she held his hand, any time she moved her fingers, goose bumps went up his arms. And whenever there was a gap in the conversation, and enough time for him to push her into a corner and gently kiss her delicate lips, desire pooled inside of him until he didn't think he could bear it anymore.

Surely she know the effect she had on him? How could she not realise that she made him hot and want to love her and only her for the rest of his life whenever her eyes rested on him? Was she just teasing him, or did she really and truly not know the effect she had on him? Beautiful, modest Rory…what was she doing to him? He loved her so much…how could she not know? Dean thought it was high time he told her.

Touching her back gently as she stood laughing with Lorelai, Dean almost gasped as she turned to face him. She seemed even more beautiful than the last time he'd seen her. It had most likely been about all of ten minutes ago, but it felt like forever. Rory smiled slightly as Dean entwined their fingers together and pulled her backwards into the small room off the living room. In the dim light, Dean smiled at her and took both of her small hands in his. Putting his lips to hers, he kissed a pathway from the corner of her mouth, up her cheek until his mouth rested next to her ear. She giggled slightly, excited to have him so close to her when they were alone together.

"Happy birthday," he whispered in her ear, his warm breath tickling her and making her laugh. She whispered her thanks in his ear and then touched her lips to his – softly – two, three, four times before putting her hand under his chin and bringing his mouth closer to her so she could kiss him harder, more passionately. His hand snaked around her waist and lay at her back and she kissed him and kissed him. There it was again, Dean thought, almost incoherent with his desire for the small girl in his arms, Rory Gilmore: hot and sexy as all hell.

It had been almost the first time she had taken the lead in anything they'd done together, and whether she knew it at that moment or not, it meant a lot to Dean. Thinking about the good times made Dean briefly think of the short time when they had been broken up; the absolute hell he had been through. Wanting to pick up the phone and ring her but knowing she wouldn't answer; wanting to go over to her house but knowing that Lorelai would have turned him away, the boy that had broken her daughter's heart; his heart leaping every time the phone rang and then plummeting further than it had jumped when it wasn't her; seeing her that day running away from his house, knowing that she couldn't face him after what he'd done to her.

But all that was in the distant past, and it didn't matter to either of them at that moment as they pushed further and further into each other's arms, hands on shoulders and waists and tangling seductively in hair. Both of them jumped apart as the light snapped on. It took Rory a moment to realise that Dean' s hand was lingering at her breast, so dazed was she by the passion of the kiss they had been sharing a moment ago. Just as fast, the room was back in half-light and Luke's voice came out of the shadows by the door.

"I won't tell your mother."

Rory laughed at this, and Dean laughed as well. Both of them had been afraid that it was the formidable Emily Gilmore. Still smiling, Rory pulled Dean close again, kissing him gently and running her hands through his gorgeous hair. And at that moment, the love that surrounded them and drew them closer together than ever was the best birthday present that Rory ever could have asked for.


End file.
